Cremation Grave Textiles Examples from Vendel Upper Class in the Vendel and Viking Periods

Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science 13, pp. 59–74 (2002) Cremation grave textiles Examples from Vendel upper class in the Vendel and Viking Periods Anita Malmius Few are aware of the fact that organic material such as textiles and leather can survive in cremation graves. Even fewer are aware that charred textile fragments contain almost the same information as unburnt prehistoric textiles. This fact provides the opportunity for comparing textiles from different groups in society, for studying textile development, and for gaining access to a much greater textile material based on the numerous cremation graves. In this article the outfits of the men buried in the cremation graves in “Vendla’s Mound”, dated to the Vendel and Viking Periods, are compared with those buried in the contemporaneous boat-graves in Vendel. Introduction strong materialistic attitudes to death and life thereafter. The In an overview of Scandinavian textile- and leatherworking, buried person has been provided with a full set of equipment Eva Andersson (1995: 16) observes that the textile craft for the after-life. Thanks to the custom of equipping the tends to be mentioned only in passing in the archaeological dead with rich grave-goods, we can today obtain insights literature and research discussions, and that dress is primar- into some aspects of the culture of buried persons. But only ily seen as a complement to buckles and other ornaments. certain categories of objects have been laid down in the The reason for this would seem to be ‘the shortage of finds graves – already their contempories made choices as to what and other evidence’, but also, ‘poor knowledge of what has was at the time considered suitable and representative. been found and lack of interest’. Much of what has been deposited tends to be of perishable This applies even to the results of the craft, namely the material: wood, textiles, leather, bone, food, etc., (Arbman textiles themselves, but in the case of textiles from cremation 1938: 10). If we depend only on the material that has been graves it is more a matter of lack of knowledge than lack of preserved, we run serious risk of obtaining a biased picture of finds. Few are aware of the fact that organic material such as the range of objects in use in prehistoric times. This is even textiles and leather can survive the cremation pyre. Many are more the case with regard to material from cremation graves. on the other hand aware that textiles, feathers and leather in It is further important to remember that only certain groups Scandinavia can be preserved in inhumation graves by con- of people were entitled to be buried in style and to be tact with objects of bronze, silver and iron. Archaeological equipped with grave-goods. textile material is however in any event a rarity and it is there- Textile finds are by tradition separated from other fore of utmost importance that all material that survives be archaeological finds and perhaps this is why they have failed taken care of. to be further analysed and documented (see below). Many The greatest problem in Nordic archaeological textile re- of the rich graves were excavated during the National Ro- search is without doubt the perishability of textile material in mantic period when archaeological interest focused on deci- the ground. Textiles survive only in special conditions sively manifesting antiquity as a period of greatness. Textile (Geijer 1994: 297ff), which means that the finds cannot be finds were considered at that time to be of minor import- considered representative of the original material. Previous ance. To obtain a more balanced and clearer image of pre- archaeological generations have deliberately chosen to ex- historic society, I have in my research instead taken as my amine the usually very find-rich inhumation graves. The starting point all sorts of textiles, woven fabrics and other boat- and chamber graves of the Vendel and Viking Periods textile techniques using animal, vegetable and metallic raw have been found especially interesting since they record materials, down, feather, leather, fur, etc., from different Figure 1a. Map of Sweden Figure 1b. The “Vendla’s showing locations of Vendel, Mound”, Raä 8 and the Valsgärde, Old Uppsala and boat-grave cemetery (Sw. Birka. Drawing Kjell Persson. båtgravfält), Tuna, Vendel. After Seiler 2001. types of graves and different environmental contexts. The buried in the boat-graves have been interpreted as men on textiles are placed in the centre of their immediate and gen- the basis of the find material. eral context. As a step in this direction, I here wish to draw Since 1991, the Archaeological Research Laboratory attention to the textile material in cremation graves. (AFL) at Stockholm University has conducted archaeological excavations in the proximity of Vendel church in northern Background Uppland. The original purpose was to localize and examine a In Uppland, rich boat-grave cemeteries, including those at settlement, which could be linked to the famous boat-graves, Vendel and Valsgärde, were excavated at an early date and but the project has been expanded to include studies into vari- are partly published (Stolpe & Arne 1912; Arwidsson, ous aspects of Iron Age society in eastern Svealand including 1942, 1954, 1977). The chronology of the Vendel boat- an attempt to understand the power structures current in the graves is based (1912: 59f) on Montelius 1892, Salin 1904 Late Iron Age (Arrhenius & Herschend 1995). The model and Stjerna 1905. The five Vendel Period boat-graves in the areas chosen for analysis, Vendel and Valsgärde, lie respec- Valsgärde cemetery have been dated by Arwidsson (1977: tively 30 and a couple of kilometres north of Old (Gamla) 126ff). Because of the large number of finds of high quality Uppsala. Excavations so far at Vendel have resulted in settle- in the fourteen boat- and chamber-graves at Vendel – a place ment traces located south of Vendel church, only c. 50 m which has given its name to a whole epoch before the Viking from the boat-grave cemetery. At least two buildings can be Age – we know that these interments began c. 520/30 defined, a dwelling house and a farm building. Finds and ra- (Arrhenius 1983) and continued until the late Viking diocarbon datings indicate that the settlement was estab- Period. The boats complete with their contents, which in- lished in the end of the 5th century and continued on into cluded textiles, leather, down, etc., were placed in the the Viking Period (Isaksson et al. 2002: 41f). A settlement ground unburnt in a period when the dead usually were study of the surrounding area shows that the ‘Tuna terri- burned on pyres and buried in cremation graves. All persons tory’ in prehistoric times included a much greater region than the area around the boat-graves and their associated Figure 2. Plan of Raä 8 settlements (Seiler 2000) (fig. 1a, b). Within that extended showing locations of area, there lie three large cemetery groups and several settle- cremation graves A2: 2 and A1: 2. After Seiler 2001. ment-indicators, of which, three cemeteries and a settlement were excavated archaeologically during 1996 and 1997 (Seiler 1997). These settlements, boat-graves and cremation graves are situated on or in direct proximity to Vendel esker, i.e., an environment that does not facilitate the preservation of textiles. In the autumn of 2000 however, textiles were found in cremation grave A5, Vendel 1:8, dated to the later half of the 5th century and located in the cemetery close to the western churchyard wall (Raä 27). These fragments are however too charred to allow for analysis of binding system and thread count. Charred finds suitable for analysis were however found in the spring of 2000 in the cremation graves in Vendla’s Mound, Raä 8, at Vendel, Vendel par., Uppland. Raä 8 is situated on the crown of a hill about 280 m south-southeast of Vendel church. The monument consists of two burial mounds (A1 and A2) without any distinctive boundary between them. The southernmost and largest is known locally as Fröken Wendelas hög (Miss Wendela’s Mound), Drottning Vendlas kulle (Queen Vendla’s Hill) and the like. The hill and mounds measure c.35×30 m and at highest 6 m. The hill has a strategic location in terms of ex- posure, lying close to Allerbäcke, which forms the hypo- thetical prehistoric territory boundary. Seiler (2000) has ar- gued that Vendla’s Mound functioned as a boundary-marker within Tuna with regard to Karby to the south and that it was erected when the Tuna farm became established during the 5th century or beginning of the Vendel Period (Isaksson & Seiler 1997: 74; Arrhenius 2002). In all, three graves with cremation deposits were found within Vendla’s Mound and of these graves, two, A2: 2 and A1: 2, contained charred textiles (fig. 2). On the evidence of the composite comb L2 and gaming The osteological material is too fragmentary for defini- boards, Seiler (2001) dated grave A2: 2 to the second half of tive sex-determination but the dimensions of these sites, the the 6th century, based on Lindqvist 1936: 166ff, 216ff; hunting birds, gaming pieces, etc, and total lack of female Sandberg 1976: 12ff; Petré 1984c: 70ff. A radiocarbon es- ornaments, provide strong indications that these are male timate from the grave provides a later date, possibly due to graves (Seiler 2001: 56ff), (table 1). contamination during sampling. New samples have been The aim of the present investigation is to establish which submitted for radiocarbon dating. The grave contained types of textiles those buried in Vendla’s Mound were fitted- three textile fragments and the burnt bone of animals and out with, and to compare these to the textiles from the con- two humans: a child and a youth who, because of the so temporaneous boat-graves in order to try to establish what symbolically closely placed cremation urns, are considered function the textiles held, and to obtain information as to to be possibly siblings.

Load more